{"id":1246,"date":"2011-04-12T23:21:17","date_gmt":"2011-04-12T23:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2011-04-12T23:21:17","modified_gmt":"2011-04-12T23:21:17","slug":"1246","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2011\/04\/12\/1246\/","title":{"rendered":"UTSA and Malawi sign agreement of cooperation to develop education programs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"560\" height=\"349\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2Gs3FsoWhws?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>By Lorna Stafford<br \/>\nCommunications Coordinator, Office of University Communications<\/p>\n<p>Building Malawi one child at a time &#8212; that is how <strong>Steve Matenje<\/strong>, ambassador from the Embassy of the Republic of Malawi, describes UTSA&#8217;s latest global expansion.<\/p>\n<p>On April 1, UTSA President <strong>Ricardo Romo<\/strong> and Matenje  signed an agreement of cooperation, which now gives UTSA an established  presence on every continent. The agreement expands the successful Read  Malawi project established in 2009 under the guidance of <strong>Misty Sailors<\/strong>, UTSA associate professor of interdisciplinary learning and teaching.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to expanding the Read Malawi program, the formal  agreement (a first between UTSA and Africa) consists of four key areas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Development of education programs for Malawi grade-school teachers,<\/li>\n<li>Collaborative projects involving support for small businesses and expansion of micro-enterprise projects.<\/li>\n<li>Collaborative projects that assist the expansion of Malawi ecotourism and<\/li>\n<li>Possible projects in the fields of computer science, engineering and medicine.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;This is by far an important moment not only for UTSA but for the  entire San Antonio community,&#8221; said Sailors. &#8220;Not just UTSA but our city  will be known in Malawi as a place where research, scholarship and  humanitarian efforts converge. I am looking forward to the great  programs and projects that will develop as a result of this  collaboration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Malawi, known as the &#8220;Warm Heart of Africa&#8221; for its diplomatic  relations, has a population of more than 13 million. Its chief  industries are agriculture and manufacturing, although it is  increasingly becoming known for its tourism.<\/p>\n<p>But according to Matenje, much of the country&#8217;s progress over the  last seven years has been hampered by high illiteracy rates. That&#8217;s why  Read Malawi and UTSA&#8217;s extended relationship is important, he noted.<\/p>\n<p>Already, the three-year, $13 million Read Malawi project sponsored by  the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are  providing five million books and 182 titles to children and teachers in  the republic in an effort to encourage improvements in literacy rates  and provide improvements in teacher training and practice.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Given today&#8217;s knowledge based economies, the importance of  eliminating illiteracy in Malawi and poverty in all dimensions through a  quality education and access to information cannot be overemphasized,&#8221;  Matenje said. &#8220;I have no doubt that Read Malawi will make a difference  in the lives of our school children and teachers.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/utsasign-300x188.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"utsasign-300x188\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1393\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lorna Stafford Communications Coordinator, Office of University Communications Building Malawi one child at a time &#8212; that is how [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[283],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}